Sweetcorn.What went wrong

[Thelma Sanders]

My sweetcorn grew well with no problems....it looked really promising
But then we had a week of wet windy weather just when pollination was going on/or not as it turned out!
Hardly any of the silks are browning. I planted a few plants out that were sown 2 weeks later tohelp pollinate any late cobs. But even that doesn't seem to have helped much. Had a look at the fattest cob, and corn is very patchy

[binley100]

mine is only just starting to flower .....was I later than everyone else?

[Snadger]

My 'Incredible' sweet corn looks incredibly healthy, is about 5 foot high, the male flowers on the top are opening up but there are no cobs at the bottom!!!!!!!!

[VirginVegGrower]

Held onto mine in pots later and planted out after wet and windy May. Growing really well which I am pleased with as they were starting to get slightly rootbound. My minipops, planted two weeks earlier got battered by the winds despite pop bottle protection, but seem to have recovered well. I always grow Lark as it is all I can ever find. I ummed and arred over planting so late but glad I did now.

[dave_norm_smith]

Mine is rubbish again also, just ground to a half at 3 foot? With this happening two years on the bounce I'm wondering whether its worth giving them space next year? Its a pity as it is one of my favourite vegetables!

[reetnproper]

I'm wondering whether its worth giving them space next year? Its a pity as it is one of my favourite vegetables!

Hi Dave,

Do keep trying. I've grown them successfully for the last 3 years and I'm not that far from you. What variety are you trying to grow? Has it always been the same one? Oddly enough, I've always
had my best results from seeds aimed at kids

I'm thinking the unseasonally cold nights are to blame this year. I don't think we've had many (if any) warm nights this year and that is the ONLY difference between this year and last year that I can tell.

Reet
x

[dave_norm_smith]

Hi

I tried NES last year and then this year Lark. Your right though, some of the nights have been unpleasantly chilly. If you have the name or brand of the ones you have tried I may have more success, as you say your not that far away in Brigg ( Used to go to Harry Carrs there when I lived in Epworth). With limited space to grow you just question a crop that repeatedly blobs.

Dave

[Davyburns]

I'm Growin Swift F1 in 2 containers each 2 feet wide with 6 plants in each on my patio, 1 of them is doing really well and are 4 feet high and flowering, the other one is like the ones in your photo. Both in the same compost, both fed and watered the same

[taff]

the corn in the garden is 3 to 4 ft high, has flowered, each stalk has 2 - 3 cobs on with the silks turning brown. the corn up the tunnel is 6ft high, has just started flowering and I see no sign of any cobs at all. Go figure.

[jonohanson]

Mine got covered in aphids and by the time I noticed it was too late as the leaves were splitting and wilting.

[HeyWayne]

I sowed two lots - one at the beginning of the recommended sowing time, and one lot at the end to try and extent the cropping season (Bean loves the stuff).

The earlier ones are about 4ft high, and have cobs appearing on each plant.

The late ones are weedy little plants no more than a foot high (those that have survived).

I'm going early next year and having done with it.

I drive past fields of it on my way to/from work and the plants they have are all about 6ft high.

[Storming Norman]

Funny thing with sweetcorn. At our allotments we have seen some real failures and some real success.

I'm lucky mine are so successful that we started eating them today, yum.

I know I'm in the south but I take precautions to get a good crop as these are real favourites. I grow in big square pots from seed, planted in April [no earlier] in a cold greenhouse. I only plant out when they are well acclimated and very strongly growing, not small and weedy - they just won't settle. I water for two weeks only and not again for 2 months - they need to get their roots down really deep to do well.

I feed little - once or twice and only if they look like they need a pickup, if they have deep roots [and they should have] then they have enough food in my clay soil. I want them stocky not spindly. I do mulch though. I always grow in 2 different places - one will always do much better than the other for some odd reason. Additionally for an extended season I put seeds in the ground at the same time as I put in the glasshouse grown plants - often in a good year they get close to catching up, but sometimes these later sown plants do better in a poor season.

I find variety is very important. Kelvedon Wonder does well for me but I now find Lark is the best variety - its known as an early variety and this year it has really performed. Its also a safe variety for allotments, where cross pollination can be an issue.

As sweetcorn is a grass - it need loads and loads of sun, a big open space to grow and no shade, no adjacent plants. Every failure I have had has not really been weather influenced but where I have been greedy and planted too close to each other or too close to other plants.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Yep, sometimes you've just got to try things for yourself. I do hope that some of my posts help others avoid the mistakes I've made though

Never saw this post earlier. hee hee, it wasn't that I thought I could "do better than her", it was just that I'd already bought the seed and I was trying it anyway since it was there.

I'm a scotsman mind and waste not want not is a national mantra.

However, mantra or not, it looks like being a total waste of time and a waste of the ground which could well have been used for something else.

[Two_Sheds]

Every failure I have had has not really been weather influenced but where I have been greedy and planted too close to each other

That's interesting, because a few weeks ago people were saying how successful they've been with really close planting

[lozza_9]

I am not growing sweetcorn this year but one of my neighbours is growing some and he is not very happy with his crop. They are not very tall and not many sweetcorn growing.
Loz